It’s the 2nd largest city in New England behind Boston. You might not be looking hard enough. Go to FB and see events, groups etc in Worcester.

For teenagers tho . All I’ve been able to find is trails and places to walk your dog and museums

Where are you moving from? It probably has more to do than where you are coming from.

Ireland

What are you looking for?

Not much until the summer/fall really with the art festival and stuff like it, Saint Patricks day is coming up but it hasn't boaded well with the political turmoil against it and the gang nonsense making bar hopping dangerous, the weather being poor when the parade comes doesn't help either.

Probably wanna travel around state more often for events and such, particularly the boston area holds alot to do. You can take the train if you don't like driving there too.

Thats probably going to be culture shock, but there are lots of things to do in Worcester. Unless you are moving from a big city in Ireland there will probably be more things to do in Worcester.

The nice thing about worcester is that it’s right in the middle of massachusetts so there’s neighboring cities with other fun things to do all within a 15-30 minute drive. And assuming you would go to school with other kids, you’re bound to make friends with people who know the area and know the places to be. It’s the kind of city you’d have to actually walk/drive around in to notice anything eye catching. Google’s just going to show you five different historical museums

Worcester is boston s poor, ugly cousin.

What things for teens are in your area that you can’t find in Worcester?

Honestly I got a bike and went to West Boylston and hiked by the reservoir

Depends on the school you go to there and where you would be living. It's great because you're near things , but the city itself is not cool like Boston. Worcester is 39 miles from Boston. 2 hours to cape cod with traffic. It's about an hour from anywhere near the ocean. If you are in hschool, I wouldn't want to move but maybe you would like to reinvent yourself here.

Don’t do it.

Depends on her interests. Personally, I love being close to places like Purgatory Chasm, the Ecotarium, the Broad Meadow Brook Conservation Center...

Thats entertainment,The Ecotarium,Polar Park, The Dcu and the Palladium.Worcester public market.

arcade

There’s multiple hidden gems you just have to look.

Lol 🤣

Haha what the hell are you on about with political turmoil and gang nonsense making the parade and bar dangerous? That’s a wildly ludicrous claim my friend. Signed-a parade and regular bar attendee

It’s a city. It has city things. Restaurants, parks, venues. Lots of people of all ages and backgrounds.

This tells me you have never been to an irish pub in your life especially on saint patricks day. You're living under a burgess shale and an eon's worth of mud if you have no idea about politics these days lmao.

There’s a train that goes directly to Boston, it takes a little over an hour but there’s lots to do in Boston if all else fails. There definitely are some hidden gems of Worcester but to be realistic I know I definitely wouldn’t have enjoyed them as a teenager. There isn’t much to do and a lot of teens either get into trouble or get jobs, i know I worked with some of them.

Worcester is one of those “working on it” cities that really try to engage the public and there are a lot of cool events that happen in Worcester year round but overall falls flat bc of the lack of social spaces and event spaces. I recently moved to the Boston area and I enjoy my everyday life so much more.

Haha my friend, I hope you can get your nap in today because this is bananas

I wouldn't move to Worcester, MA from Ireland. There are places in the US that are really nice, but Worcester isn't one of them. Actually, most of the east coast is shitty except for a few areas.

Source: I'm from the Midwest and people out here are rude and entitled. My biggest regret in life has been leaving the Midwest for the east coast. Just don't have enough money to move back and probably can't sell my house for enough in today's market.

Stay in Ireland lol you don’t want to be over here

From Worcester there are so many things within an hour or so away: Boston, providence, Cape Cod (beaches), Skiing & Snowboarding, concerts and shows, Six Flags (rollercoasters), shopping outlets and malls, aquariums, whale watches, hiking, kayaking, stand up paddle board, camping & backpacking, lots of amazing restaurants, baseball stadiums, hockey, basketball, other arena shows like monster trucks, ice skating shows, comic book and gaming conventions - I could go on. It’s not just about what’s in Worcester, it’s about about what you can spend a day trip going and doing.

That does sound like a woke statement to me, and if our friend finds that desirable it will certainly convince them to move to this shithole out of all the great places in America or even what better there is in Massachusetts generally than here.

In what way is what I said “woke?” There are not roving gangs going from Irish pub to Irish pub, sorry my man. That’s delusional.

Depending on the neighborhood, Worcester can be a great place to live. I haven't lived anywhere with better food options. It's very pretty here in the fall. The traffic isn't bad for a city. You're a half hour plus from RI and Boston, only a couple hours from Cape Cod, the Berkshires, the White Mountains, Vermont, CT, Maine.

There's GAA clubs here if you're into trad sports.

I guess if you’re in countryside of Ireland, Worcester will have more to do. If you live in a massive city, not sure.

There are lots of Irish descended folks here. So you would at least find some fellow Irish!

there’s a good deal of stuff to do but I wouldn’t let a 15y/o wander around certain parts of worcester. My go to activity is actually taking the commuter rail into boston or natick (the natick mall is really nice and they have an arcade). the Massachusetts train system has a weekend pass that lets you ride the commuter rail as much as you want for 10$ on saturday and sunday. Within Worcester theres a couple of strip malls to go to but nothing particularly interesting. The library we have is actually pretty nice and they give out coupons that you can use at popular Massachusetts museums/zoos/aquarium. If your mom drives you theres a lot of stuff in the surrounding area too (ice cream, movie theatre, etc). My only advice for you personally is to be careful where you walk alone, and to avoid the homeless in worcester. Most will leave you alone but theres a couple of nasty ones that will pickpocket or aggressively follow you around for money (like 20$, not just pocket change) and you can never tell which are which.

Central Mass is wicked close to everything. You both are almost old enough to drive over here, so that's cool. There's an endless supply of things to do within an hour's drive.

Worcester is the heart of a pretty fantastic hardcore metal scene, and we have a great venue called the Palladium that hosts tons of shows. Also a few dozen smaller clubs and two or three larger concert venues.

Also we're pretty central to frisbee golf, and Pyramids and Maple Hill are local courses that anyone who plays the game will know about.

We have a top level art museum with the biggest collection of arms and armor outside of Europe.

We have something like a dozen colleges, lots of them host a bunch of events all the time. What is it you're looking for?

What do you do already in your area for teens that you aren’t finding here? That might be able to help people point you in the right direction.

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Having bought a condo here after living with 5 other guys in an old house in Somerville, with no smoke detectors and 1300/per person rent, I will gladly put on the beer goggles for Worcester 😂. I am older, mid-30s, so the Boston life didn’t appeal to me much anymore. Just my opinion

What to you like to do in Ireland? We can see if any of it's available here.

My mother took my sons (14 and 12) just two weeks ago.. and they had a blast..

Edit: I’ve never been, I just checked their website and it does state 21+ but it seems they have family day events (Sunday’s) where all ages are allowed.

Sounds like your experience comes from buying a home in a shitty part of town. And they're called fly over states for a reason. Not everyone has this same experience

I'm in a nice area of Worcester. Good schools, nicer homes, etc. And I also said this is most of the east coast, not just Worcester. As for the house selling, that's a market issue. Lots of houses have sold easily in this area in the past, but it's not a good market for buying houses when interest rates are almost 10%.

I also do know not everyone has the same experience. I offered my experience as someone who came from a different culture within our own country to someone who's thinking about moving from a different culture in an entirely different country.

Sounds like you have this need to defend Worcester when people in Worcester are some of the worst Massholes I've met.

There is the JCC, has a lot of good programs for kids and a big, BIG gym, it’s like the YMCA (the Worcester YMCA is terrible)

As someone who is naturally introverted New England is awesome. No fake kindness/small talk with people you don't know. Being in the mid-west is ok but I could never live there.

Different strokes, I guess.

I guess it is different strokes. Everyone in the Midwest was genuine with me. People out here are nice to your face then talk about you behind your back. Very clicky too.

I haven’t experienced that since high school!

Worcester has restaurants, bars, beer gardens, museums, sports teams, concert venues, music clubs, and educational institutions

I'm trying to get my 20 year old to go to uni in Ireland. And then stay there.

If you're 15-16 i would not recommend.

There's a lot of food to try.

Predominantly on Shrewsbury street, green street and chandler street.

There's also the baseball stadium which has games during the summer and spring season.

There's a few bars and restaurants with live music.

There's also a few themed bars. One with archery and axe throwing, arcade games, etc.

There's a few escape rooms.

There's typically a lot more going on during the college semesters than not.

I have experience with both places. Worcester is fine but I would stay in Ireland.

no there is nothing to do

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please stay where you are

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we dont need your kind here anyway

If he plans to go to college soon, it's a pretty good option

Most if not all of these either have lots of teens hanging around or a bunch of teen programs/classes or both:

Brand new outdoor skatepark https://www.telegram.com/story/news/2022/08/21/crompton-park-skateboard-park-worcide-worcester-parks-recreation/10357227002/

Brand new indoor skatepark https://vesselskate.com/

Climbing gym https://centralrockgym.com/worcester/

Art museum https://www.worcesterart.org/

Gaming/comics shop https://www.thatse.com/

Music venue with lots of all ages metal, rock and hardcore shows https://thepalladium.net/

Pretty cool district with a public food market and a new baseball stadium https://bostonmanmagazine.com/polar-park-heats-up-worcester/ https://www.worcesterpublicmarket.org/

There a couple pretty big “gyms” under the name of YMCA that are really more like recreation centres with basketball, pools, Rick climbing, tennis and regular work out equipment, all of which usually have a lot of teens hanging out in one form or another https://www.ymcaofcm.org/news/events/mission-in-motion/

Having grown up in Worcester I can say that as a teenager I REALLY enjoyed hanging out at the 8+ (?!) colleges and universities to check out the concerts, shows, various programs, films and generally hanging out with college kids. https://www.worcesterma.gov/colleges-universities

Then, if you want to really dig in and depending on your interests there are some really cool places with teen friendly programs like Technocopia makerspace, Worcester Earn a Bike, 508 Bike Life

The Boston Globe recently had an article on how quickly Worcester is growing and adding new things to do and see https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/01/30/business/worcester-is-booming-amid-bostons-housing-affordability-crisis-now-its-home-prices-are-soaring-too/

You know this is Worcester, Massachusetts — not England

The city itself is just OK. Nothing great. If you are planning on going away every weekend great.

I would agree. Worcester is just nothing like boston

Worcester is not a destination but it is a fantastic base camp.